Talk:Everything Is Everything/@comment-24712996-20140407225247
I remember the first time I came across One Tree Hill. It was the weekend and I searching for something to watch which didn't require my IQ to lower itself so much that you could practically trip over it. However, I paused when I got to E4 because on the screen was the beautiful Sophia Bush. It wasn't her undeniable beauty or even screen presence which caught my attention - she was in tears as she poured her heart out to Lucas. It was the emotional stuff I usually rolled my eyes at. But I found myself holding back tears because that very moment I found myself relating to Brooke Davis, her vulnerabilty and simple yet powerful insecurities were something which I had long carried around myself. It was like making a new friend and finding hope in them. Soon I started to watch the series from the start and her first appearance had me smiling because she was this confident and self-assured cheerleader who I knew everyone misunderstood. She was seen as being a stupid, vapid cheerleader who got off with most of the guys and relied on her parents money to get by - she was the girl who everyone found it so easy to judge, to think harshly of her they were making themselves feel better. And the guys didn't appreciate her spark and she let herself believe that was ok. Now, I didn't relate to Brooke here. Forget guys, the only muscle I pulled was running after the bus. I didn't party, I was known as being a good student involved in numerous after school clubs, I was only flexible in my attempts to try get out of the P.E timetable, and I always tried to focus on books over boys because I knew what I wanted, plus no guys liked me like that so it would have been a waste of my energies. I would bemoan to my best friend that no-one liked me at all and then sigh dramatically when she insisted I was very well liked by pointing out all the reasons I was awesome...it was cycle. And in Brooke Davis I found someone who could live out all my angst and for someone to express their feelings in a way I seem to have lacked. When Brooke told Mouth that all girl want is for 'someone to want them back' I found my heart reaching out to her and when she called out the doubles standards when it comes to comparing the actions of men and women I wanted to applaud her. "Wanting to be loved...feel understood', it was this simple line which defined how most of us feel. Brooke summed up the emotion of an entire generation. She may have been seen as overconfident and sexually promiscous, but like so many she didn't feel like anyone got her. She felt like no-one could appreciate her flaws and thus she never allowed herself to be seen as weak. When she said 'that's what I'm afraid of. Not being enough. Not being good enough, not being smart enough, not being pretty enough...' I felt like I was Brooke because this struggle to live up to expectations was ever present. I didn't feel pretty or smart enough, more often than not I still don't, and she voiced an honesty which I still hadn't been able to admit to myself. She basically said it was ok to feel that way, that we all do in some way or another. And it was her insecurities which led her to sometimes making bad choices, driven by peoples lack of trust in her, and she had her heartbroken yet trusted those behind her pain again by allowing herself to open up. She trusted and loved. She saw the best and worst of love and friendship. She went through an insurmountable of heartache - let down by her mother, men she loved, her best friend betrayed her, having a child she loved get taken from her and feeling left behind when all her friends moved forward. She loved and barely got anything in return. Even after all the time had passed since HS to me it seemed Brooke was in many ways the same, for she loved with all her heart and stayed sassy as ever by trying to prove she was worthy of affection, ''true ''love and not the kind which one can just talk about without ever truly making someone feel. Lucas, I am talking to you, mister. She had a big heart and showed that finding love was about realising what you deserved and not what just any old person was willing to give to you. Brooke was firecely loyal to her friends and the betrayal she felt by Peyton spoke volumes about how she couldn't get past not being good enough again - Lucas never made her feel like she was enough for him. And yet she forgave them only to be hurt again and like the person she is after sometime she was able to move forward with the both of them. She put her pain aside for the sake of her friendships. Then Julian Baker walked into her life. Julian was the type of guy who HS Brooke probably wouldn't have gone for since he was adorably awkward and slightly geeky and lacked the charisma which Lucas, along with all the other guys, seemed to possess. But he got her. He saw that behind all her bravado she was a girl who others had nearly broken but her strength caused her to get up again with a smile on her face. He loved Brooke for who she was, not who he wanted her to be. He understood all the pain she had been through and, unlike all the guys before him, had decided he was not going anywhere until Brooke saw what he did - a complicated yet simple woman who was strong but had never truly been appreciated. He's not the guy she saw herself with but he turned out to be the guy who saw her for all she was. She could have closed herself off from love but after such a long time she realised she was more than enough. And while I love Julian it wasn't down to him though he did help. She understood her own strength, her own wonderfulness and the fact she deserves better than the way she's been treated. She's a sassy, smart strong woman who demands respect. She doesn't get her validation from others anymore. She loves and if others don't then that is their problem. Brooke Davis brought a lot of tears and laughter into my life and reminded me one important thing which I sometimes forget - I am enough, I am more than enough and my insecurities as well as others do not define me. I define myself. I love all of the characters. Hayley, Nathan, Julian, Peyton, Quinn, Clay, Mouth. But Brooke was the one I always loved the most. It may have been because I saw myself in her the most and so was rooting for a happy ending or perhaps it was the just the sheer strength she displayed. She was the friend who gave hope, the one who loved like no other. It's been many years since I first came across One Tree Hill that weekend. It was a wonderful journey. And Brooke Davis showed me I could be more than the girl I thought I was and for that I shall always love her.